Tippecanoe Co. historical group's curator works to preserve the past for future generations

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — John M. Harris spends each Tuesday and Wednesday quietly working in a small office surrounded by shelves stacked from floor to ceiling with boxes containing ... well, that's what Harris is finding out.

Outside his office, a much larger room is filled with stacks of boxes, filing cabinets and a conference table for sorting. Throughout the Frank Arganbright Genealogy and Research Center, items are in storage -- items someone at some point considered historically significant.

Nestled in his small office on the second floor of the center on 10th Street across from the Moses Fowler House, Harris' task is to computerize the Tippecanoe County Historical Association's hard-copy card catalogs and computerize years of donated items that escaped being enumerated or completely slipped through the cracks....